The emergence of COVID-19 added more uncertainty to the lives of producers, who have already been handling trade disputes, transportation interferences and difficult weather since 2018. During the pandemic, the Agricultural Producers of Saskatchewan (APAS) acknowledged farmers in Saskatchewan were alarmed with COVID-19’s impact on agricultural finances, supply chains and access to labour just before the 2020 growing season.
In response to the concerns of producers in this province, APAS initiated an online survey to accumulate vital information to discover the total influences imposed by COVID-19 on farmers in Saskatchewan. The survey was meant to track how the province’s agricultural sector had been coping with the advancing crisis. Producers were asked to complete the COVID-19 farm survey on a weekly basis.
The survey launched on March 24 will be updated each week, with the outcomes made public and communicated to government officials. “We’re going to do the survey on a weekly basis,” said Todd Lewis, the APAS president and farmer. “As issues arrive, we want to have new questions.”
The APAS survey was designed to be current, topical and vital. “The situation is changing fast and it’s crucial for us to have real-time information to share with government about how farmers are being affected by COVID-19. The more data APAS can collect about what’s happening at the Saskatchewan farm gate, the more likely it will be for government support measures to actually meet farmers’ needs,” Lewis explained further.
Currently, some of the questions on the survey were concerned with finances, transportation issues and labour requirements. The survey also quizzed farmers about their personal circumstances, such as financial needs and mental health, as well as questions related to business concerns influenced by the manifestation of COVID-19.
“The COVID-19 situation is unprecedented and we really don’t know what to expect in terms of how agricultural supply chains could be affected,” Lewis said. “Saskatchewan produces a significant portion of the world’s food and we need to understand how farmers are being affected by this crisis.”
In these uncertain times, with stress certain to continue rising, the province’s agricultural industry must discover new and creative ways for producers to address the pandemic. “This is a new thing,” Lewis said in regards to the COVID-19 crisis. “We have to start thinking out of the box.”
Although the federal government has taken some corrective actions such as increasing the ability of Farm Credit Canada to assist producers, as well as extending repayments on Advance Payments Program loans, the APAS asserted that increasing the debt of farmers wasn’t the complete answer to the problems caused by the pandemic. “Much more needs to be done,” Lewis said. “The general public is discovering how important food production is – agriculture is an essential service.”
